Tate Receives “Transformational” Donation from Miami’s Pérez Family
139April 4, 2025
Miami-based collectors and philanthropists Jorge M. and Darlene Pérez have pledged a multimillion-dollar endowment to Britain’s Tate in support of curatorial research and have donated to the institution a trove of works that includes a major painting by renowned Abstract ExpressionistJoan Mitchell. Speaking with theBBC, Tate director Maria Balshaw described the gift as “transformational” and “one of the most important” ever received by the museum.
Mitchell’s work, a roughly twenty-foot-long 1973 triptych titledIva, was initially dedicated to the artist’s dog. The work is currently on view for free at London’sTate Modern, next to Mark Rothko’sSeagram Murals. Valued at up to $5 million by Christie’s, the painting is a significant addition to the institution’s Mitchell holdings, which until now comprised a group of prints and a diminutive late painting. “To place such a significant and valuable work in public hands is an act of incredible generosity,” said Balshaw. “It is also an endorsement of Tate’s ability to share our collection with the broadest possible audience—particularly here at Tate Modern, the world’s most popular modern art museum—and to care for that collection for future generations.”
Also among the donated works, which have yet to make their way into Tate’s collection, are those by artists from across Africa and the African diaspora, including El Anatsui, Joy Labinjo, Yinka Shonibare, and Buhlebezwe Siwani; an important group of photographs by Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta is also promised.
Real estate mogul Jorge Pérez has to date given or pledged more than $100 million to Miami’s public art museum, which in 2013 was renamed the Pérez Art Museum Miami. Pérez in 2019 founded Miami not-for-profit experimental art space El Espacio 23. “Our hope is always that our art is seen by the highest number of people,” he told the BBC. “The Tate has huge viewership, millions and millions of people coming in,” he continued, noting, “We hope it fills a gap in the collection that is very important and maybe the most important art movement in America.”